Baladi News
Police have detained two Syrians in Germany and one in France on suspicion of torture and other crimes against humanity, prosecutors said on Wednesday, the first such arrests in Europe against suspected figures in Syria’s feared security service.
Germany has “universal jurisdiction” laws that allow it to prosecute people for crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world. Such crimes can be prosecuted in France if the suspect is resident there or a victim is French.
“The significance of the arrests is that the trials are going to be the first time that torturers and victims are going to come face to face in a court of law,” said Mazen Darwish, a Syrian lawyer.
“Survivors of the systematic torture of civilians in Assad jails are going to give evidence against their executioners, and this is a first,” he said.
Federal prosecutors in Germany said that suspicions against the two who were arrested in Germany, which is home to more than 600,000 Syrians, included torturing prisoners during their work for the intelligence service.
The two suspects, identified as Anwar R., aged 56, and Eyad A., 42, were arrested by federal police in Berlin and Rhineland-Palatinate state.
Source: Reuters.